Wolves take hard loss to Uintah

Last Friday night the Green River Wolves took on the 0-2 Uintah Utes at Wolves stadium and came away with a 42-7 defeat. Uintah had the advantage of having already played two games and had about an equal number of upperclassmen. Uintah's defense was able to put pressure on the Wolves' quarterback throughout the night, and their offense controlled the line of scrimmage a good portion of the game, which enabled their offense to make some big plays both in the passing and running game.

Uintah got the ball to start the game but the Wolves defense - led by, among others, Jeremiah Selmo, Nate Mitchell and Gage Finley - limited them three and out and the Utes had to punt. The Utes had two penalties in the drive while the Wolves had one, but the big play was a pass completion from the Wolves' quarterback Caleb Lake to his 6' 4" wide receiver Skyler Lee for 48 yards to set up a short run by Jackson Mitchell and the Wolves took an early lead 7-0 after the P.A.T. kick was good by Jaxxson Gomez.

After the Wolves' kickoff was returned to the 35 five yard line, Uintah began to move the ball on the ground from their good field position. Uintah's senior quarterback broke through on the drive with a 37-yard run and then hooked up with a fellow senior and co-captain for a pass completion in the end zone. After the P.A.T. was good, the game was tied.

The Wolves got one good 16-yard run from their senior power back Bracken Miller, but were unable to sustain the drive and had to punt. A couple good runs and a 30-yard pass completion and Uintah had scored again to take the lead at 14-7. The Wolves went three and out on offense and had to punt. A couple of big runs by their sophomore running back Dace O'Bagy and Uintah had scored again early in the second quarter for a 21-7 lead and the route was on. Four plays on their next offensive possession and the Wolves were stopped and had to punt the ball back to the Utes. This time the Utes mounted a longer drive which ended with another T.D. pass and a 28-7 lead. The Uintah defense once again stopped the Wolves on three plays and Uintah's co-captain Sheffield got his second T.D. of the game on a 68-yard put return and Uinta was up 35-7 at the half.

The two teams exchanged possessions several times in the second half with nobody scoring until Lake was intercepted by Sheffield who again made a big play. O'Bagy then broke through on Uintah's next possession on a 61-yard run to end the scoring at 42-7. Both teams moved the ball without scoring and the game ended with the Utes winning their first game of the season.

The Utes ran the ball for 389 yards and passed for 98 yards against the Wolves with 10 penalties and only one turnover. The Wolves rushed for 185 yards, 87 by Bracken Miller and 78 by Caleb Lake, and passed the ball for 84 yards for a total of 269 yards in total offense with six penalties and two turnovers.

Head Coach Cuthbertson commented regarding the game: "We knew they would be good, bigger, faster, stronger. They are a much larger school than we are with approximately 1,500 students, that being only 10-12 grade. But we wanted to challenge ourselves coming out the gate, and play a high level competition to make ourselves better." Coach went on to say "even though the score did not show it we did get better. We made mistakes but that's part of the learning process - learn from the mistakes and don't repeat them." Cuthbertson suggested "it may sound cliché but there was a lot of first game jitters, while Utah has been practicing for 6 weeks and this was their third game, compared to our first." The Coach felt that they will learn from this game, get better and be a better team because of it. They will keep working hard he exclaimed, and get ready for a very good Lander team at home in Green River this week.  

The Wolves have another home game Friday against Lander.